OCTO Winter Meet 2024

Air Cooled Legends travels to the OCTO Show (Orange County Transporter Organization) Winter Meet 2024. This event is exclusively for 1967 and earlier Volkswagen buses, taking place at Long Beach Veteran’s Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, CA, where enthusiasts gather to swap parts and showcase their vehicles. We go inside and talk to organizers, vendors, VW owners and even other podcast hosts!

Find out more about OCTO here: http://octo.org/

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Transcript

 For today's episode, my son and I traveled to Long Beach, California to attend the OCTO show, the Orange County Transporter Organization. It's a pre 67 only show 67 bus show.  You can drive whatever you want, but you can't take your vehicle into the show unless it's a split window 67 or earlier type two bus. 

Oftentimes the parking lot is as good as the show because people drive their bugs and their type threes and their other cool vintage cars.  But the real attraction is inside the show.  This show goes on twice a year  and there's always a great selection of parts. They have a raffle.  So my son and I are going to go around and see what's going on today.

The weather is actually quite nice. Uh, it's been raining a lot and it's supposed to rain again starting tomorrow. So, uh, you know, the weather turns out to be good for us today. So let's see what's going on in the 2024 winter Octo show. 

Okay. So we're entering the show now.  I've been coming to these early bus shows for  decades. Really before Octo, there was a different organization called Soto.  Soto sort of went the way of the Dodo and then, uh, Octo was born.  it's a great show. It's held in the parking lot of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Long Beach City College.

Pretty good, uh, pretty good turnout today. A lot of parts, a lot of buses.  Even though it's a bus only show, there's always good parts hunting going on here. So, let's see what we can find. We're gonna talk to some people.  Just have a good, good kickback fun day. For those of you who, uh,  have read about Octo in Hot VWs or some of the other magazines, it's uh, definitely a worthwhile show to come to.

I don't know that there's anywhere else in the world where you get this many super cool split window buses together all in the same place. You got original buses, you got restored buses. You got hacked buses, you got rust buckets, you got it all. , and people come from really all over the country and sometimes all over the world to attend this show, so we're really lucky to be here in Southern California and be able to just drive a little ways and, and attend it. 

Would you mind if I, uh, interviewed you real quick for my podcast? Okay. Yeah, so, uh, we've got Gabriel here from Gabe's, Gabriel's Keys, right?  So  If anybody's ever needed a key or any kind of lock or handle for their VW He's the guy to go to right and so he's here.

He's got a whole setup He's got all kinds of parts, and he's making keys on the spot. How long have you been doing this?  Yeah, a minute or two. I think since 1993.  Since 1993.  So, if somebody needs a key made, what do they do? I mean, if they can't make it to the Octo Show and see you in person. You could find me so easy on the samba.

com. That's where I sell most of my keys and stuff So right away they could find my name right there and then you're gonna find a phone number I usually answer more to text messages than anything, but if they send me an email, you know, I respond on well  Right. That's my bus right there and you can see on the on the shade That's the name of our business, Gaab vw key.com.

Okay. Greg Gab, VW Key. So it's G-A-B-V-W-K-E y.com. Basically the first three letters of my name Gabriel Gaab, and then VW Key.  Tell me about this bus. Well, I got that bus out of a collection in Puerto Rico. They, sell 175 cars. That one just made it to Puerto Rico.

It was only there for two years when I bought it. And I brought it back to California. I own this since 2019. So was that part of the collection that was sold on old bug. com? Yes. bulky land. And then, uh,, Randy, Randy Carlson is the one that sold me the bus. He says there were six buyers ahead of me, but he was like, I know you, so I'll sell it to you.

And I'm very happy. It's super cool. So for our listeners, it's a what? 66? 1966. 1966. High roof. And what color is that? Um, it's supposed to be light gray. Right now it's a little bit more beige than anything, but it's supposed to, the original color is light gray. Like Eddie Collins, who's way into the high roof buses, , this one is great if you own a business and you need to show up to a show with a ton of parts and equipment to make keys, like Gabriel's doing.

And uh, it's really beautiful and um, I like it a lot and he's got a Westy style roof rack up there. So he's ready to go. I made it to Havasu now on these just, uh, last month. Runs great. Fifteen hundred. The smallest of the BW engines. Make there no problem. So you went to buses by the bridge? In that bridge?

Yeah. Okay, cool. Sleep in there. That's my, that's my mobile home right there.  . I wanted to do a sales swap just like Eddie's, but I go like, no, I already have a bed there. So I don't, I don't, I don't need it. It's perfect for me because you could stand up in 2019. I had a stroke. Oh. So my mobility is limited a little bit.

So it's perfect there. I could change, I could do any on a bus. You can like,  I'm not that tall, but you know, on a, on a regular bus, you can, this one I could just stand up. I could do whatever I need to do in there. And it's already equipped with the bed and all my part, everything they use here, it's in the bus, you know.

So is that is that original paint or that they repainted I mean  on the inside you could see the original color  but this is just a respray that they did probably a bulky land because it's you know, it's not a it's not a  Expensive paint job or anything like that, but it's solid. I mean, I like it. It looks great.

I love gonna touch it I'm just driving it. I'm just having fun with it, you know Absolutely fine. It took me 20 years to find one  Yeah, high roofs are hard to find. There's not a lot of them. Uh, I basically found like three buses in Europe, and they were about anywhere from 20, 000 euros to 50, and they were all projects.

So I did really good on this one. I paid about 30, you know, with probably, shipping was expensive from Puerto Rico. I ended up paying maybe like 32.  So tell me about shipping a car from outside of the country because I think a lot of people find cars that they want But because right now I see a notchback for example, that's for sale in the UK But I think boy is the hassle of shipping.

So tell me about the the process of ship cheap It used to be cheap you go like this guy right here. You should talk to him Glenn He's got a chipper that they trust they have one in the Netherlands and they  Randy uses another guy from the Netherlands and it used to be around 2, 000 now I don't know where is that but it was funny that from Puerto Rico it cost me 3, 200 bucks to ship it from Puerto Rico because they had to put in a ship  all the way from Puerto Rico to Florida and then from Florida in a trailer all the way over here so and then luckily this was running They would have charged me more if it wasn't running because they needed to put it in a container then on a ship.

But they just drove this one on the bus. They just, you know, and I saved, I don't know, 500 bucks, you know. Wow.  But so it came through Florida, but it got delivered to your door. Oh yeah. You know, I, like I said, I was freshly out of my, recuperating from my stroke when he showed up, you know,  the, the guy put it on, I don't know what you, the carrier. 

And he had to deflate the tires because it's too tall.  So when he got there, he's like, Oh, how are we going to roll it? It's got flat tires. So he struggled. I say at least an hour, trying to figure it out, how to inflate the tires without touching the, the, the, the, the, the cars on top of him to get it down.

I just, I would just looking at a distance, like, Oh my God, you know, Yeah,  but he did it. He delivered right on, right on my door. Cool. I love it. Well, it's a great bus and you know, um, you don't know me obviously. My name's Cameron and this is my son Peter. But, um, you've made keys for me for a long, long time.

Oh good. And, , anybody who needs a key made, , you need to get in touch with Gabriel. , he gave you his website. You can find him on the samba. And if you're lucky enough to be in California and you can come to the Octo Show.  Probably the best way is you can come, meet him in person, and he'll make you the key right here on the spot, no waiting.

And it's gonna be, you know, cause you have both reproduction and original keys. I have some original, it's getting harder and harder. Those keys are obsolete, they're not making them anymore. So all you're gonna find is reproduction. But I still have a few original keys, you know. They're pricey, but at least some available.

I did have several shows in Europe, and I was able to find some blanks. But they're disappearing. Once you sell them, they're gone.  People tell me, when are you going to have more? Like, I don't know.  They're not making more. 

 Well, Gabriel, it was great. Thank you for taking your time to talk to me. And I'm really glad that you recovered from your stroke.  You look great.  I wasn't 100 percent before this,  but hey, as good as could be, I'm driving my bus still, you know, hey, it's a good day. Yeah. What more can you ask for? All right.

Well, it was great talking to you  thanks very much. I'm here with 10 foot Doug. Doug has a barn door. Um, tell me about your barn door. 1955, uh,  January 18th, 1955.

It's one of the last 5, 000, uh, barn doors made. This was,  of 117, 000 barn doors, this is 112, 000.  Um, it was originally imported to San Francisco. It's, it's a, um, a real California delivered vehicle. It went to Oregon,  and it was first sold in 56, and then I bought it from Oregon. Um, it had been off the road since 1978, and the previous owner bought it for 300 with no motor.

It said one used bus, then number 20112, um,  and then he had it for 25 years, and then he had  seven kids, and he didn't finish the bus. He painted it. It was all original paint, all original interior. He painted it. He wasn't happy with the paint. Some of it bubbled. And he needed his first kids to go to college money, so he sold it to me. 

I didn't repaint it. This is all his paint from when he restored it in 1980. And  so he thought I repainted it, but I didn't. And you can still see rust bubbles and scratches and chips and stuff. So I bought it as a complete. Uh, basket case at all. The windows were out. All the wires were cut short. All the lights, engine trans brakes.

So I put Porsche brakes on it. I put it together. Didn't restore it. The rear decklid is still in restoration. That's why it's in primer. People ask about that all the time. The bumpers, NOS bumpers, the dash still needs to be painted. So he was in the middle of the restoration in 1980. So  he had seven kids.

Didn't touch it. I bought it. And then I just put his parts on it. But then I, like, make it my own, like, so I put, like, Porsche brakes on it. I put, uh, I have a Porsche motor for it. Um, you know, I put it in a Telefunken radio. And the Safaris, they're original Safaris, but are not original to the bus.  All the interior's original.

, it still has, like, it has 16 inch Porsche, rims on it. It's just a driver.  tell me about this color. Is this the original color that the car came from the factory with? Yeah, yeah, this is the only one colors you would get unless you got it in primer. So it's ceiling wax red and chestnut brown. 

All by all deluxe buses. Had that color scheme from 51 to 58.  And not only is this a deluxe bus, but it's a 23 window. So most of you listening know exactly what that means, but it means it has the, uh, eight skylights and the ragtop, uh, sunroof. And what makes it really special are those, uh, corner windows.

So how often do you drive this? I drive it quite a bit. I camp camp with it. I go to the beach. Um I would say once a week, maybe twice a week. And you know, you were talking about the corner windows. This one, the barn door is their last for the plexiglass.  So all the earlier buses used plexiglass corner windows.

This is one of those plexiglass corner windows and the later ones, they changed right in 55 to glass. So this was the very last ones of that. But like I said, I can't with it. I go to shows. Um, I drive it to the beach.  I drive it quite a bit, but not full time. Sure, sure. It's not like your,  uh, daily commuter.

No, but I take it, I drive it to work. You know, like, they have shows that night, uh, in Encinitas. So, I'll take it there, or in El Cajon. Um, they have one, and they also have one in,  what's it, in East County. There's another one. So you're a San Diego County person. So are we. We're in Fallbrook. Oh, nice. Awesome.

Oh yeah. Then you know about the one Fallbrook show, the um, it's not a Fallbrook. What's the one cruising grand. Yeah. But yeah, so, so quickly, again, most of our listeners know exactly what a barn door is, but tell me in, uh, in a few words, what is different about a barn door bus from. Any other, , pre 67 split window bus?

Yeah, so the term barn door came from the nickname from the rear deck lid that was very tall. So it's like as big as a barn door. That's how it got its nickname. But the barn doors, they don't have a front roof vent. So there's no fresh air box above your head, which is great. headroom. Um, the dash is different.

The deluxe is the only one. And deluxe ambulance, taxi, they all got full length dashes. But, um, and police, fire, but,  so the dash is completely different. The front nose is, is, you know, the overhead is different. The rear deck lid is different, but also the gas tank, where the gas tank is, it's on the left hand side instead of in front of the engine.

That's different. But other than that, it's real similar up to 67.  And I will say that this particular model, , does not have. traditional turn signals on the nose. It has semaphores. Yeah, so semaphores were used from the thirties and in Europe they were used to 61 and in the United States they were used to 55 and this is a 55.

This was the last, barn doors were the last ones that had semaphores, turn indicators.   uh, he mentioned at the beginning of his story that, uh, this was originally imported to San Francisco. And so that makes a difference because if you, um, were a service man, for example, and you were stationed in Germany after the world war II, you might buy a European model bus, which had some slight differences.

And you would, , bring it home, but this one was made to your, uh, American specifications. Yeah, that's interesting too, because they changed the headlights. The headlights in these are really rare. Now, the ones that I have in it, they're not, they're not the correct ones. They're European style. But the, the American versions use the clear egg headlight instead of the fluted ones.

And then barn doors had the wider, they call it the,  eyebrow or sliver.   So these are incorrect, but they still look good.  No, this thing is amazing. So, listen, I want to thank you very much for talking to us. And your bus is beautiful, and I love the fact that you drive it.

And I love the fact that you're San Diego County, like we are. Yeah!  Alright. It's  almost 9. 30, I thought it was going to be 10 o'clock. So, we're going to give you guys five minutes to get up here to the front. Uh, raffle's going to start in five minutes.  What's your name? My name is Bert Koda. Bert, where are you from?

La Palma, California. And tell us about this amazing bus I'm looking at here. Well, actually, um, I acquired this bus in South Carolina. And, um, it was built by a guy named Lee Hicks.,  I stumbled across it. I had a friend of mine who contacted me. And told me there's a, uh, , a bus up for sale.

And, , I looked on my phone. I called them, uh, 23 minutes after the listing and I took off and grabbed tickets and I flew to South Carolina that day to go look at it. So, it kind of fell in my lap and I'm glad it did because I'd been looking for a while. I have a 71 single cab as well and then I have a, uh, 73 VW thing also.

But, uh, I needed the bus for the grandkids.  So it worked out good. So, um, for our listeners, this bus is beautiful. First of all, what year is it? It's a 59. So it's a 59. So it's walkthrough. So the reason that's important is  walkthroughs were very rare before, you know, mid sixties, uh, these early walkthroughs, the seats are different.

Then a later walk through seats that has the bullet lenses. What color is this bus? It's a mango and seagull gray mango and seagull gray. It's an amazing color combination. It's got the press bumper. Are those Safari windows original to the bus or did you install it? They're they're original to the bus.

Amazing. So when you got it, did it look like this?  It did. It looked a lot like this. I did go through some mechanics in it and It had front disc brakes, , drilled and slotted, and I added rear disc brakes, drilled and slotted to it. , just little odds and ends, details that do it your own way, you know, and tweak it a little bit.

But other than that, the bus was painted and complete. Wow. And so what kind of engine are you running? It's a 2077, , with a ProBuilt  it's lowered. What do you call those rims, Cosmos? Yeah, they're, well, they're actually, uh,, reproduced. , they're, , done in Oregon. I think you can see his name right stamped on them. 

, yeah, they're made to order. So those are 17 inch. Beautiful. Alright, well, um, thank you for coming out and thank you for talking to me. Your bus is awesome and I've always wanted an early walkthrough and I haven't made it there yet, so I'm a little envious. But, uh, I appreciate it. . All right. Have a great day. Yeah, you too.  So one of the cool things about this show is that the sponsors, which include Wolfsburg West and Izzy's and a lot of other well known  manufacturers of parts provide parts for a raffle.

 The buck a ticket. It's really worth it. Some years you don't win anything. Other years I've won great stuff we got ourselves five dollars worth of tickets today. So we'll see if we win anything The other cool thing about this show is there's there's two parts. There's a parts only area Where you name it?

It's not just bus stuff. It's bug bus type 3 thing any any kind of Air cooled stuff, you can imagine. And other stuff. Some people come here to sell bikes, you know. And then the other part is just strictly cars. So, while we're waiting for the raffle here, we're going to cruise through the parts area and see what we can find.

 Ticket number is 2 6 4 5 4 0 2 6 4 5 4 0.

  So what's your name? My name is Bill Sagrinos. Bill, where are you from? Las Vegas, Nevada. Ah, that's where I was born. So, uh, tell me about your super cool double cab I'm looking at here.

1962 double cab pickup, uh, on the cover of November 2010 Hot VWs.  It's a 2270 type 4 currently in it, 4 wheel disc brakes, 944 turbo brakes, tall geared trans. We drove it down from Vegas yesterday, so we'll be driving it back this morning. . So cool. So, um, for our listeners, I'm going to go ahead and call the look on this custom just as a general, , description.

So cool. Cool. Cool. What did you do to this, bus, and I know the list is long, so tell me about what you did to it to make it give this custom look. Well, this bus, the inspiration for this bus came from a TechArt, Cayenne poster, where it had, uh, TechArt's an aftermarket company that builds things for Porsche 911s.

, they did, when the Cayenne came out, they came out, they had a photograph of one that was meteor gray that had the platinum wheels on it, and that was kind of my inspiration. To build something that looked like it was a bit modern. So the style that this bus is built in is, is called German look.

And so this bus has, you know, the big red caliper disc brakes on there. It's got a nice high horsepower motor, big tall gear transmission. This thing cruises on the highway at about 75, 80 miles an hour, no problem. And, uh, I mean, it's just built to run. And the whole theme of the bus, it's called the Carbon Cab.

You know, because of all the carbon fiber accents on it and everything's kind of done with a carbon fiber accent. So it's kind of a contemporary look bus. It's very cool. , let's take a look at the front here. I noticed when I was walking by, you did some stuff to, uh, the headlights. , tell me about like the front of the bus.

So this has Rossi headlights on it, which were a headlight that you would take your glass bulb and go to a vertical bulb in a beetle in the 80s. I took these headlights, turned them sideways, and put the H4 beams in them, and then the bumper's been dimpled dyed, and it's got a 928 Porsche transmission cooler that's been modified to be used as an external oil cooler, so there's two oil coolers on this bus.

To, uh, keep the engine oil cool. No wonder you can do 75 all day long in Las Vegas. And, uh, I see you got a, uh, TAC mounted there to the dash. And then how about these, uh, Safaris? Were they original to the bus or did you add those? No, these are a set of Izzy Safari windows that have been powder coated platinum to match the wheels.

So, the whole bus is platinum and, uh, Porsche Meteor Gray. So how long have you had this bus? Well, I bought this bus in 2008.  And did you do all this stuff or did you buy it like this? No, I, I built it like this. This, myself and my brother at the wagon. So, my brother owns a restoration shop back in Las Vegas called The Wagon, so.

Oh, okay. Uh, does he have a website? He does. It's the wagon. com. Okay, cool. That's good to know. I also have a website. Okay. What's your website? My website's called let's talk dubs. Okay, cool. And so what will we find if we go to let's talk dubs? You'll find over 250 episodes of a weekly podcast on Volkswagens. 

 Okay, cool. How's that going for you? That's going pretty good. We've got a large footprint worldwide, uh, about 15, 000 downloads a month. So. Awesome. I love it. Okay. Great. And good luck with your podcast. We always need more VW content out there. Well, you know, we do when, uh, you know, I hatched this idea quite a while ago, believe it or not.

And, um, As we kind of got nearer and nearer to, uh, actually doing it, there wasn't much, we noticed, you know, compared to other stuff going on. Uh, there really wasn't much, so I thought, you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. And I have my little helper here, so.  That's it, there's plenty of space, and I had my son help me the first couple episodes.

I fired him and rehired him several times. And, uh, we've always been, uh, it's really a self produced thing. Uh, 250 episodes out, and they're about an hour plus long apiece. And it really Focus on the history of the hobby. People that have been in the VW hobby for a long time and really gets some in depth Information about people that have been in the VW hobby or have been pivotal in the development of our hobby over the past several decades Absolutely.

I love it. Well, thanks for your time. We love your bus and We're gonna go check out your website as well. Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate it.

 All right. I'm here with a double cab that Looks like it's had quite a bit of work and TLC put into it. And I'm gonna talk to the owner. , what's your name? Alan Harson.  Alan, tell me about your double cab.  , it's a 1960.  And it's what they call a seam gate. it's got this seam here. And what it was,  Volkswagen  changed the style.

They wanted to carry more people.  So, they extended the cab this way, and they didn't want to tool up, so they used the old gate and put it together and created a seam. And these are considered pretty rare. So, what you're saying is, uh, at first, before they knew that this model was going to take off, they just used their existing tooling, and they took some, what would have been longer, single cab gates, cut them in half, Or cut them down to size rather and, um, made double cab gates.

And, and so these ones you have are factory original seam gates.  So, how long have you had this double cab? Uh, ten years. Okay.  What's your wife's name?  Penny. Hi, Penny. So, these folks are posted up here at Octo. They, uh, they know what they're doing. The bus is shining. I mean, he's obviously got it detailed down to every nook and cranny.

They've got their chairs. They're kicking back. And, uh, I couldn't resist to talk to them. So, , did the bus look like this when you got it? Uh, not at all.  No, there's a lot of replacement parts, new, um New metal on the floor. Uh, these trucks were considered work trucks and they were never sold at a dealership, , as a private vehicle.

They were brought over to the dealership to haul their motors and parts around and then they ended up on farms and different places. So they took a tremendous beating. , over the years, uh, people have found them and brought them to life.  Well, you certainly did a good job and so just, uh, you know, obviously this is not television So I'm gonna kind of describe to my listeners what we got here And it looks like and correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

You've lowered it. You've put some Porsche polished chrome cookie cutter rims  you've put the Deluxe trim around the beltline you have press bumpers, which are actually correct for a 60 60 Right. Uh, you have two racks. You have the rack over the bed and then you have the rack over the cab and you have Safari windows.

I don't believe any double cab originally came with Safaris, correct? Uh, they may have in the front. I don't know. We have them in the back and on the sides. They may have had them in the front. Uh, the rack, they came with the, the rack in the back and there were four, four slats  and a canvas.  This one came with a, spoke steering wheel. 

This has a third brake light back there, up smart on the rack.  We put in a, um, bay window gas tank. Gives us three more gallons. And so it's 13 gallon tank and it's got a, uh, 2110  engine in it, completely redone , freeway flyer transmission. So where are you folks out of?  Oh, Hacienda Heights. Okay, and where'd you get this bus? 

La Puente.  No, it wasn't far at all. It was one night, uh, I was just getting ready to go to bed and looked online and there it was.  It's in the steam gates and we knew we were going, we had to have it. So you went that night or did you go the next day? No, we went the next day, but the man wasn't very friendly.

He'd been getting phone calls all from all over. He said he'd just gotten off the phone from a fellow from France  he was pretty anxious to sell it, so.  We negotiated and  got it. He probably preferred to sell it to what was essentially one of his neighbors rather than try and get it to a guy in France.

I was in his backyard. Yeah, easy, easy for him. Easy for me. Well, I can tell you've put a lot of, uh, money, time, blood, sweat, and tears into this double cab, and it really shows, and, uh, we love it. , I've always wanted an earlier, uh, what they call bullet nose, , bus. I've never gotten around to getting one of those yet.

I've only really had, uh, 66s, 67 buses, but, um, I'm, I'm envious of your bullet nose. Oh, thank you.  Have a great day, and thanks for talking to me, , have fun, uh, cruising your, your double cab.   So, Charlie Hamill is the vice president of Octo. Correct? Correct. Yes. Okay. When did Octo start? Uh, Moe Moore and I co founded it in 1998.  And that was, uh, probably a couple years after the Soto dissolved. No, Soto was still active, but, you know,  it wasn't really up to snuff.

So, you know, I just took a Survey from the bus people and they wanted something else. So that's what we did.  And you're in Orange County somewhere, right? Like where's this bus in your attic?  It's in my house, in my backyard, in my garage.  Is it complete? I've seen pictures years ago. It's nearly complete. Yes.

What are you missing still?  Oh, about six pieces. That's all? Mainly the roof. Oh, the roof.   There's no NOS roofs out there, or are there? There, it's  out there somewhere. Now, did you used to own a bus business?  I have the bus stop, but that's more of a hobby slash business. But, I'm still, it's Charlie Hamill's bus stop.

, yeah, my brother and I started that in 1983.

Usually I see you cruising around on like a bike or a trike at this show. Yeah, I got a bike. It's sitting right over there. And then you're here with your son, right? No kids, no. No kids. My brother and I. Oh, your brother and I. Yeah. Okay. No wife, no kids, no problem. So, other than um, the NOS bus you're building that just needs a few parts, what other buses do you have? 

 A variety of commercial buses. Low Mile Unrestored is what I collect.  That's what I'm talking about. And you've gotten them from Southern California, mostly all over the world, all over the world. Yeah.  Can people still like visit the bus stop or is that just more of a hobby? Do you have like a website or anything they can go to?

I'm working on the website, but yeah, people are welcome to, uh, to come visit since I can't bring them all out. I let people come see. You mean they could come see in person or they can go to the website? You can come see in person. Wow. Really? Tell me about what it takes to put the show on. Uh, it's a group effort, all volunteers, about 25 people. You see how smooth it runs because everybody knows their job and we've been doing it a long time.  I've gone to it at a couple locations. I remember years ago I went to, um, Honda Center. 

Yeah. We started at the Tejas lot by the Honda Center. Then we moved over to Angel Stadium and then we've been here for about 10 years. No, all the mow ones in the park. Oh. The very beginning were at, uh, illegal at the Cycle Garden in Huntington Beach. Right, right. The little shows the cycle garden. .  And then, wasn't that also called like the Bus Garden or something like that?

It was the Transporter Garden. That's it.  , I think I was at one of those shows too. But that's when I didn't live in Southern California. The first show was October of 97. Wow. The very first event.  Thank you, Charlie. I appreciate it.  

 Uh, maybe if I'm lucky, I can, uh, convince him to sit down with me and I have a much more extensive talk with him. He's definitely, , one of the, , preeminent bus people in the industry or the hobby or whatever you want to call it. 

 Alright, so we're about to leave, but I see my friend Kevin Martin here and his son. What's your name again? Skyler. Skyler, good to see you. .  I've known Kevin for, I don't know three years now and I bought a bus from him and I bought some turkish parts from him And this guy is as much of a bus person as anyone I've ever known He's nice enough to let me stop by his place from time to time and look at his buses So how many buses you got right now about 18 of them? 

only 18 Most recently I was looking at a so SO 34 flip seat with the sub hatch, original paint. What color paint is it? Ceiling rack shred and beige gray. Man, the thing's awesome.  Kevin, , is an electrician by trade, you can often find him selling buses on the Samba. And so, , you do welding?

Yes, sir. Fabrication.  He does fabrication and, uh, rust repair. So, I bought a 66 SO42 from him that he had done all the floors, the rockers, all the major rust. And then I bought it like that. But it did have the engine and, uh, you know, it was an original engine. And then I put in the, , the interior.  So, you're like a barn door guy.

Yes, well, I like the early stuff just like anyone else would  but you don't just leave it stock What do you do to a bus typically  make them go fast and stop fast?  Go fast and stop fast. Yeah, that's second part. It's probably the most important part  , but you don't just make them go fast and stop fast Like if you get a bus, I mean within weeks of you getting it What do you typically do if you're focusing your attention on? 

Just hammer them on the ground, disc brakes front and rear, big motors, redo all the trannies, and just, uh, make them. Rims? Rims do, yep, uh huh, disc brakes and wheels. Yeah. And just, uh, make them nice. So, I like Kevin's style because he understands and appreciates the stock stuff.  But he is not afraid to slam a bus to the ground, right? 

you know, Obviously you got 18 buses, , what are some of your favorites in your stable right now?  Uh, that flip seat SO34 is a nice one. I do appreciate it.  I do have a barn door, a 54 standard barn door that we're getting rid of.  a 55 panel barn door. As well as a few 23s and 21s.  How long have you been into VW?

Since I was 13.  And how long have you known how to weld? Since I was 14.  Yeah. So see, that's what Kevin has over me. I can do a lot of stuff on a bus, but, , I think he and I both agree. I suck at welding.  So, so he has the advantage there. And so I'll look at a bus that he has for sale and he's like, just replace all the floors and the rockers and everything.

And I look at him and say, no, I can't do it. , So tell me about your first Volkswagen. 58 ragtop bug.  What was that like? Did you do, like, did you fix that up or anything? Uh, I got it as a shell. Um, it was a 58 Coral. And super clean, but it was missing everything, every body part. And if you guys remember back in the early 90s, people stole cars.

So we think it was a stolen car. Oh, really? Yeah. And I bought it for 50.  That's a bargain.  Yeah. So someone stole it, stripped every single part off of it. And then you got it for 50 bucks. Who'd you buy it from? Some guy in the San Fernando Valley. And I ended up selling it for 500 to someone a year later. 

And he wrote, back then, they, uh, they would write blank, er, I guess bad checks. Who knew? And so I never got a dollar for it after all that, because he cancelled the check, and I got zero. Oh man, that is rough. Okay, so,  that's a great first car story, by the way. Uh, and you were, I'm guessing, 15, 16? No, I think I was, yeah, 14 or 15 at the time.

Is there a car you really regret getting rid of? Yeah, the 63 right hand drive Porsche.  Oh, 63 55 356 B? Yeah, it was a B.  So you wish you wouldn't have gotten rid of that one?  Nah, probably not, but that's life. We just move on. Well, you know, I have a 356 story and I don't even like to talk about it because I get nauseous.

I bought it and sold it while prices were still, you know,  reasonable. And now that same car is, you know, I think I bought it for 17. I sold it for 23 and I was patting myself on the back. I couldn't get that car for a hundred grand now. It's, it was a beautiful, I got it from a guy from Ohio, some old guy who babied it, it was a 356C.

It wasn't right hand drive, but you had that Porsche pretty recently, right? Yeah, if I, I, maybe like 6 7 months ago I got rid of it, and I had it for about 6 months as well. I know you've had bugs, I know you obviously are way into buses, have you ever had any Type 3's or things or anything? Um, I had a, I had a 67 Fastback when I was 16. 

And we would go ahead and run out of gas and swap motors around on cars that actually had fuel in them. And just made, you know, it was a lot easier back then. I was younger.  Yeah.  I got a buddy, Sam, who I think you know. He lives in Topanga. And one day he called me and said, Can I borrow your carburetors?  I said, Sure.

And he came down and he was like, This is so cool. Thanks. And I don't know what he did, but he used it for a while.   But anyway, all right, well, Kevin, uh, deserves a full episode and I had to kind of twist his arm.

He's sort of a soft spoken, uh, keep to himself kind of guy, but super duper knowledgeable, uh, you know, legit VW guy. So, uh, if any of my listeners want to hear more from Kevin, Kevin might have his own episode here coming up. If I can, um, I don't know, I'll show up at his house unannounced with some beer and then, uh, we'll do it.

All right, thank you guys. Have a great day at the show.